


Even Stars Can Fall

by restless (cabinfever)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, M/M, both ships are actually not that prominent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-28 20:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/678600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cabinfever/pseuds/restless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stars are brilliant beings that light up the sky. You must pray that they do not fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even Stars Can Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Sadly, I lost the original anon ask with a poem that inspired this story; however, I still have the story, so that's good. I hope you enjoy it!

Sometimes, in the dead of night, when the other boys are asleep on the couch and the floor, wrapped up in blankets, Liam watches Zayn; watches the movement of his chest as he breathes so softly. He sees the vulnerability that Zayn hides when he’s awake, that soft side that the fame would take and tear into millions of little pieces.

And it’s quiet moments like these that Liam realizes that there’s such a fragile wall separating them from that darker side of life, that place where stars go when they run out of steam and fall into the depths of the tabloids and  _Where Are They[Now](http://ziambromancing.tumblr.com/post/36774589914/even-stars-can-fall)? _ shows. And that’s what scares Liam about Zayn.

Zayn has always been the weakest one, the one who everyone thought was the bad boy, an image reinforced by tattoos and [cigarette smoke](http://ziambromancing.tumblr.com/post/36774589914/even-stars-can-fall). But even this is just a façade, and Liam knows this because there have been nights when Zayn will climb into Liam’s tiny bunk on the rumbling tour bus, crying softly about the comment that somebody made about him, or a rumor that isn’t true. He’s the one that Liam will always have to kiss away the tears of, the one that he will always devote himself to. Because Zayn is like a shooting star, flying so high and passionate above the world because that’s just what he does.

But there’s that inevitable fall that all stars suffer, that drop from the heavens back down into the slums of semi-normalcy, and Liam prays every night that Zayn won’t fall into the worst of it. Be it drugs, sex, [crime](http://ziambromancing.tumblr.com/post/36774589914/even-stars-can-fall), or even suicide, there’s still the chance that it could happen to Zayn, the most fragile star of all.

And as Zayn sleeps softly in the tangle of slumbering bodies that is One Direction, Liam prays that he can keep him safe.

*          *          *

Sometimes, when they leave an interview or finish a concert and the rest of the boys are jumping around excitedly, chatting about the hilarious question or the buzz of singing, Harry will carefully [watch](http://ziambromancing.tumblr.com/post/36774589914/even-stars-can-fall) Louis’ face; he sees the stress and the quiet sadness underneath the smile. And he sees the Louis that is tired of the world, the one that wishes that the X Factor had never happened.

He sees the subtle crease of an extra [wrinkle](http://ziambromancing.tumblr.com/post/36774589914/even-stars-can-fall) beside Louis’ eyes, a blemish that seems out of place on a boy so young, just twenty years old. And that’s when Harry wonders how long it will be before Louis can’t take it anymore and just quits, just explodes and leaves for god knows how long. And that’s when he sees that Louis is balanced so precariously on a cliff, just inches from falling out of the sky, a disaster waiting to happen.

And Louis, for all of his efforts, still can’t be the strongest. He tries to take up the responsibility of the group, tries to handle everything for the sake of the boys, but Harry knows he can’t all the time. Louis is the one that Harry will find crying in the bathroom of their moving bus, sobs muffled by the cries of Zayn in Liam’s bunk and Niall snoring softly. And Louis will, between choking cries, tell Harry that he can’t take it anymore, that there is nothing else he can do because it’s so fucking  _hard_  to stay like the same person he was before. Before One Direction, before Harry came into his life and made everything so much harder.

And Harry knows that if Louis falls,  _when_  Louis falls, he’ll fall hard and fast and painfully. Because Louis feels too much, feels too hard, feels too passionately. And that will be Louis Tomlinson’s undoing, the black hole where he is headed, Harry realizes as he watches the adrenaline-fueled smile slip from Louis’ face.

That’s where Harry will try to hold him back, because if there is one job that he has above all others, it’s to hold Louis tight and never let him fall.

*          *          *

Sometimes, Niall realizes that he’s probably the most lucky one of all of them. He watches his friends, watches Zayn break from the hate. He sees Liam forget how to take care of himself because he wants so badly to help the others. He sees Harry spiral into the traditional case of fame dazing him, getting tattoos and getting caught in the tabloids. And he watches as Louis crumbles under the pressure to be perfect.

But Niall has long since ignored the fact that he’s famous now and that the public can monitor what he does at almost all times. No, he just ignores the comments that he’s irrelevant, because he knows that without him, there would have been a cataclysmic breakup of the band, each of the stars falling into their respective niches in the uncertain gray areas of humanity. Because Niall Horan knows that he is the glue that holds One Direction together.

He doesn’t get into much trouble, and he tries not to take center stage all too often, though that doesn’t really sit well with the fans. He just wants to be a part of the band, not the lead singer or anything like that.

So maybe that’s his fatal flaw, he thinks, feigning snores in the trembling tour bus while Louis sobs in the bathroom and Zayn whispers his fears to Liam. Maybe when he falls out of stardom, from the heaven that is fame, he’ll just fall into a state of indifference.

And because he was never the one in the center, would there be somebody to catch him?


End file.
